Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
The Workers' Republic (Author: James Connolly)
Chapter 18
THE DUBLIN LOCK OUT: ON THE EVE
Perhaps
before this issue of The Irish Worker is in the hands of
its readers the issues now at stake in Dublin will be brought to a final
determination. All the capitalist newspapers of Friday last, join in urging, or giving favourable
publicity to the views of others urging the employers of Dublin to join
in a general lock-out of the members of the Irish Transport and General
Workers' Union. It is as well. Possibly some such act is necessary in
order to make that portion of the working class which still halts
undecided to understand clearly what it is that lies behind the
tyrannical and brow-beating attitude of the proprietors of the Dublin
tramway system.
The fault of the Irish Transport and General
Worker's Union! What is it? Let us tell it in plain language. Its fault
is this, that it found the labourers of Ireland on their knees, and has
striven to raise them to the erect position of manhood; it found them
with all the vices of slavery in their souls, and it strove to eradicate
these vices and replace them with some of the virtues of free men; it
found them with no other weapons of defence than the arts of the liar,
the lickspittle, and the toady, and it combined them and taught them to
abhor those arts and rely proudly on the defensive power of combination;
it, in short, found a class in whom seven centuries of social outlawry
had added fresh degradations upon the burden it bore as the members of a
nation suffering from the cumulative effects of seven centuries of
national bondage, and out of this class, the degraded slaves of slaves
more degraded still—for what degradation is more abysmal than that
of those who prostitute their manhood on the altar of
profit-mongering?—out of this class of slaves the labourers of
Dublin, the Irish Transport and General Worker's Union has created an
army of intelligent self-reliant men,
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abhorring the old
arts of the toady, the lickspittle, and the crawler and trusting alone
to the disciplined use of their power to labour or to withdraw their
labour to assert and maintain their right as men. To put it in other
words, but words as pregnant with truth and meaning: the Irish Transport
and General Workers' Union found that before its advent the working
class of Dublin had been taught by all the educational agencies of the
country, by all the social influences of their masters, that this world
was created for the special benefit of the various sections of the
master class, that kings and lords and capitalists were of value; that
even flunkeys, toadies, lickspittle and poodle dogs had an honoured
place in the scheme of the universe, but that there was neither honour,
credit, nor consideration to the man or woman who toils to maintain them
all. Against all this the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union has
taught that they who toil are the only ones that do matter, that all
others are but beggars upon the bounty of those who work with hand or
brain, and that this superiority of social value can at any time be
realised, be translated into actual fact, by the combination of the
labouring class. Preaching, organising, and fighting upon this basis,
the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union has done what? If the
value of a city is to be found in the development of self-respect and
high conception of social responsibilities among a people, then the
Irish Transport and General Workers' Union found Dublin the poorest city
in these countries by reason of its lack of these qualities. And by
imbuing the workers with them, it has made Dublin the richest city in
Europe to-day, rich by all that counts for greatness in the history of
nations. It is then upon this working class so enslaved, this working
class so led and so enriched with moral purposes and high aims that the
employers propose to make general war. Shall we shrink from it; cower
before their onset? A thousand times no! Shall we crawl back into our
slums, abase our hearts, bow our knees, and crawl once more
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to lick the hand that would smite us? Shall we, who have been carving
out for our children a brighter future, a cleaner city, a freer life,
consent to betray them instead into the grasp of the blood-suckers from
whom we have dreamt of escaping? No, no, and yet again no! Let them
declare their lock-out; it will only hasten the day when the working
class will lock-out the capitalist class for good and all. If for
taking the side of the Tram men we are threatened with suffering, why we
have suffered before. But let them understand well that once they start
that ball rolling no capitalist power on earth can prevent it continuing
to roll, that every day will add to the impetus it will give to the
working class purpose, to the thousands it will bring to the working
class ranks and every added suffering inflicted upon the workers will be
a fresh obstacle in the way of moderation when the day of final
settlement arrives.
Yes, indeed, if it is going to be a wedding,
let it be a wedding; and if it is going to be a wake, let it be a wake:
we are ready for either.
Irish Worker ,
August 30, 1913.
p.292